BUYING a car for £2,000 and selling it a few years later for £5,000 looks like a great deal to most people - but not if it is later sold for a cool £1million.

BUYING a car for £2,000 and selling it a few years later for £5,000 looks like a great deal to most people.

A great deal, that is, unless the same car later goes on to exchange hands for a cool £1million.

It may sound far fetched, but that is exactly what happened to Ipswich financial advisor John Norrington.

The car in question is no ordinary motor, but a prototype Aston Martin DB4 GT, driven triumphantly at Goodwood by the legendary Grand Prix ace Stirling Moss in 1959.

John is a man who is passionate about cars. He's owned 120 in his time and presently has seven, including a few classics.

Some of his cars are based at race tracks around Europe, and he regularly jets off at weekends to drive them and satisfy his never-ending need for speed.

John is remarkably philosophical about the DB4, which he himself raced at an invitational meeting at Le Mans in 1973.

He said: “The Aston has to be my favourite. It was a great car, it really was. I bought it for £2,000 and sold it for £5,000 thinking that was quite a good return.

“That car sold recently for £1 million. It's at Goodwood now, where Stirling Moss won in it. That's my little sad story, but I had five seasons in it including Le Mans, and a lot of fun, so I'm not complaining!

“I was lucky to own it. I think about it now and think 'wouldn't it be lovely to still have that' but of course I couldn't at today's value! You would have to be very rich to race a car like that.”

n You can read about John's love of fast cars and his passion for racing them over nearly 50 years in EAMan, the EADT's new men's supplement today.